Inmate Charged In Attempted Sexual Assault

SUFFOLK — A male inmate at the City Jail was charged Monday with attempted forcible sodomy, after he allegedly tried to sexually assault a female inmate during a coed class.

Joe Lee Fulgham, 30, of the 8000 block of Crittenden Road, was charged with attempted forcible sodomy, indecent exposure and assault and battery.

Sheriff J. Irving Baines said the incident occurred Monday morning when the instructor stepped out of the room briefly to make a copy for the class.

Baines said no disciplinary action would be taken against the instructor, but said that for the "time being," he was halting the practice of coed classes. Monday's class was for study leading to a general equivalency diploma (GED), which is undertaken by people who did not graduate from high school.

Baines said two women went to the bathroom to smoke cigarettes after the instructor left the class. When one of the women stepped out of the bathroom, Fulgham went in, displayed his genitals and grabbed the woman still in the bathroom, the sheriff said.

"He touched her with his hands and that's enough for assault and battery," said Capt. Landi Faulk of the Sheriff's Department.

Faulk said the 27-year-old woman was able to rebuff Fulgham and none of her clothes were removed. She went back to the classroom and did not say anything until after the class was over and she had returned to the place where female inmates are detained, Faulk said.

Fulgham was serving a 12-month sentence for trespassing, Faulk said. The woman was serving five years for distributing cocaine, he said.

He said the female inmate was refusing to talk to reporters, and the Police Department would not comment on the case.

Three instances of a male inmate raping another have been reported in the past three years at the overcrowded and dilapidated jail. Since October, there have been four escapes from the jail.

The Virginia Department of Corrections has no policy on coed classes, said John T. Britton, the manager of the department's certification unit.

Britton said he would encourage the Sheriff's Department "to have supervision at all times."

Officials at Newport News and Virginia Beach city jails said they did not allow male and female inmates to attend classes together.

"We don't even allow them to see each other if we can help it," said Capt. C.E. "Chuck" Moore of the Newport News Sheriff's Department.